"Located in southwestern South
Dakota, Badlands National Park consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded
buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed
grass prairie in the United States. The Badlands Wilderness Area covers
64,000 acres and is the site of the reintroduction of the black-footed
ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America. The Stronghold
Unit is co-managed with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and includes sites of 1890s
Ghost Dances. Established as Badlands National Monument in 1939, the area
was redesignated "National Park" in 1978. Over 11,000 years of human history
pale to the ages old paleontological resources. Badlands National Park
contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to
35 million years old. Scientists can study the evolution of mammal species
such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig in the Badlands formations".
EXTERNAL
LINK: Badlands National Park
(National Park Service)